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Month: June 2011

I must admit that as a genealogist, I’d get a charge out of finding that Jesus was in my family tree. I’ve heard that there is a book entitled, “King Jesus” and that it’s premise is that Jesus was the real King for the Royal Bloodline. There are those who believe that the Catholic Church kept the Judas story out of the Bible because the authors of that “book of the Bible” (or shall we say non book because it wasn’t canonized) believed you didn’t have to go through the church to get to God. Well yes, I too believe that the light of God is free, I feel closest when in nature with no one else about. I don’t have to pay a church for that.

I was looking for the meaning of an ancient Iranian greeting, “May your nose always be wide” and instead of finding the answer to that question I ran across the Iran Solidarity and International Committee against Stoning and then another website that tells us to be glad we don’t have small noses and another website with travel advice for tear gas, pepper spray and tampons if you happen to get arrested in Iran. Probably the closest I got to finding the answer to the ancient greeting about my nose was more Iranian travel advice, “don’t blow it in public.”

Suellen Ocean is the author of the historic novel The Celtic Prince Available here:

There’s a lot of hoopla these days about whether the new Royal Couple, William and Kate, are Jewish. What’s the big deal? Millions (probably billions) of us have Jewish ancestry. It is the hardy rootstock of a volume of Americans. Why not embrace it? Kate’s mother’s maiden name is Goldsmith and world famous David Icke has found a source who believes Princess Diana’s mother was a Rothschild. Other genealogists insist that William is of the Davidic branch of Jews. How many David’s do you know? Are they Davidic? Perhaps not but just as that apple tree gives forth a delightful variety on it’s grafted limbs, so our ancient Semitic ancestry provided us with genetic material with which we were free to procreate with other people’s of the world. Be fruitful and multiply the bible told them. And they did.

Suellen Ocean is the author of the historical series, The Lion’s Trace Available here:

The ancient Celts may have liked to keep the skulls of their enemies (believing it provided subservience of the enemy’s soul) but in 809 when an ancient Bulgarian leader, Tsar Krum, killed his enemy (the Emperor Nicephorus) legend has it that Tsar Krum “fashioned his enemy’s skull into a drinking cup.”

It seems every culture where the lion roamed, has its own legends of heroic feats performed against one of mankind’s favorite beasts. One such story is the legend of the lion that continued to torment Greece’s Nemean Valley. Hercules (whom Scribner-Bantam dictionary describes as “the most famous hero of classical antiquity, son of Jupiter, known for his great strength”) killed this notorious lion and then (of all the nerve) went on to wear the skin of the poor dead lion. Every two years a sort of Olympics was held in Nemea and Greek athletes came from all corners of Greece to compete.

Fifty years ago in some Greek regions, customs were quite different from contemporary weddings that we see in the United States. These Greek brides would act as a servant to the wedding guests and serve them breakfast. But what was more interesting was the play-acting that the bride performed in the days before her wedding. The bride was expected to sulk around her parent’s home and pretend she was distraught over her impending nuptials. Her friends would come to her and try to talk her out of her negative feelings toward the marriage and the bride would resist her friend’s efforts. Eventually the bridegroom would show up with his relatives and take her away by force. The wedding was then held in a family home and for a few days afterward the bride participated in ceremonies where she gave gifts to her friends and relatives. Suellen Ocean is the author of many books on diverse topics. Her books are available here:

A common practice of ancestors who changed their name to assimilate into a new country, was to remove some of the letters of a name, sometimes purposely and sometimes through transcription. For example, one of my ancestors went by “Epke.” He was the son of Jacob Lion. EPIKETOS is an ancient Greek man’s name and means “newly acquired.” If you look carefully, you will see that four of the letters removed, form the name “Epke”. I have no idea if this is what my ancestor intended but it is an excellent example of what many Jews did to their names.